The present disclosure relates generally to small appliances, and more particularly to food dehydrators.
A food dehydrator is a kitchen appliance used for drying food. Dehydration is a method of food preservation in which moisture is removed from the food, thereby extending the shelf life of the food by decreasing the growth of bacteria and minimizing spoilage. Food dehydrators components work together to circulate air around a food item to thereby remove moisture from the food and exhaust the moisture from the food dehydrator.
Food dehydrators typically comprise a housing or housings that defines a food cavity. Several food trays, which hold the food to be dehydrated, may be removably insertable into the food cavity via an opening defined in the housing. A door selectively closes off the opening during the dehydrating process. The food trays are typically large to enable a large amount of food to be dehydrated at the same time. To facilitate inserting and removing the large food trays, the opening in the housing and therefore the doors are correspondingly large.
Conventional food dehydrators have doors that conventionally hinge open, via a bottom edge hinge or a side edge hinge, or have doors that are removable. Conventionally hinged doors may hinder access to the opening, as the large doors present an obstacle even when open. Conventional removable doors may be misplaced, damaged, or soiled when removed from the food dehydrator.
It has heretofore not been discovered how to create a food dehydrator which provides unobstructed access to the opening and food cavity without the risk that comes with removable doors. The food dehydrator of the following disclosure accomplishes the above and other objectives and overcomes at least the above-described disadvantages of conventional food dehydrators.